The Traitor ✓ (Book Six)

Chapter Eleven

  I shake my head.

  Oh the irony-

  But I guess he would know better than anybody. From my experience being around politicians, who are more often than not rich- they tend to stick together or attract to one person like flies to a corpse. Lauren, in the years that I knew her- was that person.

  Because she was so great at convincing people of things, she often used that to gather donations from America's richest to important causes. Her and Kyle, while extremely wealthy- were still never the richest people in the room, but they almost always made the largest contribution because that's just the type of people they are.

  And I haven't exactly focused on that aspect of their lives, but I imagined if I looked it up- they'd still be donating a million dollars a year.

  I'm not so sure about victor. He seems to like solid gold furniture a little too much to donate money.

Who knows though?

  "He might be one of those that likes to keep his contributions secret-" I think as I lightly tap the top of a table. Yep, definitely solid.

  Downstairs, I can hear him waiting on me to emerge and tell him his daughter's fine, that she just needs space- but I haven't gone to her yet. There are so many ways it could go wrong; depressed people can sometimes be violent, or if her symptoms are anything like mine- she could be staring at the wall, unresponsive to the outside world.

  Don't be a puss-

  I've dealt with much worse than female emotions.

  I take a deep breath before walking the few feet to her door. On the inside, I can hear the faint sound of crying; from somebody whose trying not to.

  I knock.

  No response. Just more crying. So without waiting on one, I twist the knob. Nothing. She locked it.

  Here goes nothing.

  "Maria?"

  "GO AWAY!"

  "Maria I don't want to do this because you are a twenty seven year old woman but.... If you don't open this door I am going to break it down so I can make sure you aren't trying to Kill yourself."

  For a brief second, I think the crying stops, and then I finally feel her pull on the doorknob, on the opposite side.

  Then she stands on the other side of it, annoyed.

  Better annoyed than dead-

  "I'm fine. See?" She holds out her arms, in a "look! I wanted to but I didn't" way.

  She thinks she's clear, until I peak around her shoulder and see the bottle of sleeping pills shoved under her bed.

  "What?"

  I just glance between her and the bottle.

  "What- oh. Those. I've got a legitimate reason for having those, promise."

  "Maria-"

  "A reason that you do not need to know, might I add. In fact- why do you care? You're an employee."

  "And... as an employee who...is your bodyguard it is my job to protect you from everything  that could do you harm- even yourself."

  Protecting people is all I know how to do. For the past ten years, it was myself. Before than- Lauren. And before that- senators and various mayors.

  "That's a load of shit-" Maria starts.

  "No. No it's not. I was hired to do a job and I am going to do it until I get fired." I shrug.

  "Well then- I guess you're fired."

  My brain buffers for a minute. Then I realize what she's doing, and I decide not to accept it.

  "For what reason?" I ask. Now, her brain is the one buffering, while I've got our whole conversation planned out in seconds.

  "Excuse me?" She asks, eyebrow furrowed. I imagine she didn't start hearing that until law school, being the only daughter of a billionaire- and that she rarely ever hears it outside of work.

  "I mean sure, fire me if you want- but your required to give a legitimate reason and I may not be be an expert but I don't think making sure you're still alive is a good enough reason."

  "Fuck you."

  Keep the flashbacks far away, keep them far away-

  But it's too late.  Those words were the last ones Emily ever said directly to me. And now the situation feels familiar too.

  I tried to keep Emily alive of my free will......

  And now my job is to keep Maria breathing.

  I wrack my brain for something to quickly cover up the way my facial expression fell and settle on an overused joke.

  "I think it's a little soon to be perpetuating to bodyguard x protectee stereotype, but if you insist..." I shrug.

  Maria laughs and a smile fills her face.

  Sometimes the cheesiest jokes are the ones that make people laugh when nothing else will.

  "But seriously.... Why would you want to off yourself? You've got this amazing house and job and Costa Rica's politicians know your name and you-"

  I would kill to have her life and barely be in my upper twenties. The time went by so fast that I now regret taking extra shifts instead of vacation days.

  "Damon, stop." She interrupts.

  "No I-"

  I should have listened to her. I should have listened to the queen's that told me to shut it, but oh well. It's too late for that now.

  "Just STOP IT! My life might not suck as much as everybody else's but you don't know everything about me and that's how it always will be!" She yells.

  And she's right. I know almost nothing about her, other than what I googled. She popped up under her fathers name as child, her birthday, occupation and education were on google for all to see.

  But the fucked up part?

  Her dad's bio was three paragraphs longer.

  Mine is ten.

"Fine."  I finally reply after ten seconds of silence. She turns to me, having avoided my gaze, and the last thing she said stands out. "So you plan on keeping me around for a while?"